Rules and ethics
Part of How to Vet Micro Influencers in the UK for Fake Followers
How to Vet Micro Influencers in the UK for Fake Followers
How to vet micro influencers in the UK for fake followers: audience checks, ASA disclosure history, Companies House searches and the evidence to keep on file.
What to take away
- Fake follower checks work best when paired with UK disclosure checks on the creator's own feed.
- A Companies House search takes three minutes and rules out front operations and dissolved entities.
- Ask for screen-recorded analytics rather than screenshots, because screenshots are easy to edit.
- Keep audit notes for 12 months so the next campaign can reuse the file.
Why a follower number tells you very little
A micro influencer with 18,000 followers can look credible and still reach almost nobody. Purchased accounts inflate the total while engagement sits flat. The useful signal is the ratio between reach and followers, not the headline figure.
Real vs Bot Comment Quality
Real audience
- Reply content
- Mentions post or product
- Spread
- Varied across accounts
- Relevance
- References place or product
Bot accounts
- Reply content
- Same three phrases
- Spread
- Repeats across hundreds
- Relevance
- Generic, no context
Comment quality is a rough guide. Real audiences leave replies that mention the post, the product or a place. Bot comments repeat the same three phrases across hundreds of accounts.
Ask for the last 30 days from the platform's own analytics. A genuine creator will share it within a day. Reluctance is a finding in itself, and worth recording before you commit.
If you are still building a shortlist, our guide on how to find micro influencers without an agency covers sourcing routes that avoid paid databases.
UK red flags: disclosure history and company records
Scroll the creator's last 20 posts and look for #ad, #gifted or a paid partnership label. The Committee of Advertising Practice code requires ads to be obviously identifiable, and the ASA publishes the rules in its advertising codes. Creators who never label anything are a compliance risk, however good the content.
UK Red Flag Checks
- Scan last 20 posts for #ad or #gifted
- Check label is above the fold
- Search trading name on Companies House
- Compare incorporation date with claimed trading years
- Confirm a UK registered address exists
Placement matters too. A label hidden below the fold is easy for viewers to miss.
Company records are the second filter. Search the trading name on Companies House. The register is maintained under the Companies Act 2006, which also sets the filing duties.
Look at the incorporation date, the filing history and any charges. A creator claiming four years of trading under a company incorporated eight months ago needs explaining. The same applies to an operation with no UK registered address.
A five-step vetting sequence
- Screen the audience first. Compare the follower-to-engagement ratio with two or three creators in the same niche.
- Run the disclosure check across the last 20 posts and note every unlabelled paid placement.
- Search Companies House, and the FCA register where the creator sells credit or investments.
- Request screen-recorded analytics covering reach, follower geography and audience age, then compare them with the pitch.
- Record the outcome in a one-page file with the date, the reviewer and the evidence seen.
Reading an audit: what the numbers can prove
No single metric proves fraud. Treat the table below as a set of probabilities rather than verdicts.
Reading an audit
| Signal | What it suggests | What it cannot prove |
|---|---|---|
| Follower spike of 5,000 in one day | Likely purchased, or a giveaway | Whether those accounts will ever buy |
| Engagement above 15% on a 40,000-follower account | Possible pods or bought likes | Whether the audience matches your target region |
| Flat likes with high saves and shares | Small but genuinely interested audience | That reach will scale on a paid brief |
| 80% of followers in one overseas city | Audience built elsewhere, often through follow loops | That the creator has no UK buyers at all |
Where two signals point the same way, ask the creator directly before you drop them.
Handling creator data during the audit
Analytics exports contain personal data about the creator's audience, so once you hold them you take on duties. The ICO's UK GDPR guidance sets out the lawful basis and retention rules that apply. Store audit files in a dated folder, restrict access to the people running the campaign, and delete what you no longer need.
The same caution applies to gifted campaigns. Where a creator receives products instead of fees, the disclosure duty does not change, and our piece on whether micro influencers accept free products explains what UK creators expect in return.
When a paid tool is worth the money
Most UK micro campaigns do not need a subscription tool. Manual checks on 10 to 15 creators take an afternoon, and the evidence is often stronger because you read the comments yourself.
Tools earn their place when you screen more than 50 creators a month or need historical follower data. Treat the subscription as a campaign cost, not overhead.
Common questions
How many followers should a UK micro influencer have before you check?
Check every creator, whatever the size. A niche account with 3,000 followers can carry a bought audience just as easily as one with 30,000, and the audit takes minutes.
Is a fake follower check enough on its own?
No. Audience data covers reach and geography, while disclosure history and company records cover compliance and trading status. Run all three.
What should you do if a creator refuses to share analytics?
Walk away and note it in the file. Creators with genuine audiences have little reason to withhold platform data, and a refusal at vetting stage often predicts problems at reporting stage.
Do you need written consent to audit a creator's audience?
You need a lawful basis for the personal data you hold, which in most campaign audits is legitimate interests. Ask for aggregated analytics rather than raw follower lists.
